Oxygen
by XxHot92xX
Summary: Words are teeth, words are power, words are glue. One mistake creates none. Words are not needed. KakaSaku. I don't own Naruto.
1. Sleepover

_I'd say all the words that I know_

_Just to see if it would show _

_That I'm trying to let you know _

* * *

The white walls offered no comfort to her as she walked through the barren halls of the facility. The air seemed to be stale as the scent of blood echoed upon the tiles with each step she took. The glass windows shook with the winds' howling moans of protest as tree branches scraped the outside walls to be let in from the cold. Hugging her arms around her small frame, and shivering for only a second, she made her way down the corridor with as much grace as a mink being chased by a furrier. Jingling her keys into the stubborn lock, she swung open the pale green door and shut it with force once she was inside. Desperately trying to find the light switch, her eyes closed with her sigh of relief as the florescent bulbs above glowed with elaborate brilliance.

She questioned herself repetitively as to why she took the night shift with such gusto. Was she trying to prove her worthiness to Tsunade who was already proud to call her an apprentice? Groaning and burying her face in her calloused hands, she sank into her chair in one fluid motion. Her pink locks seemed heavy on her head and she briefly wondered when she took a shower last. Her shishou had not let up with training and medic work so the roseate-haired young woman often found herself using her textbook as a pillow when she woke up at the crack of dawn.

Rubbing her bare arms absentmindedly, Sakura tried not to peer at the clock behind her. She already knew that there were two more hours to go being in a dark hospital, practically alone in the wing besides that creepy janitor on floor five. Sakura shook her head and tried to think of something lighter toned than a balding old man with a roaming lazy eye.

Naruto and her were supposed to meet up with Sai and Sasuke for some late dinner tonight at Sasuke's mansion (grudgingly on the aforementioned broody Uchiha, but he was the one with the shortest straw) but she had to cancel due to her enthusiastic volunteer for the shift. Sakura almost banged her head on the table. Why oh _why_ did she think that sitting at a desk, waiting for some half dead people to stagger in for her services, would be more amusing and lighthearted than an evening trying to get Sasuke to explain to Sai what tampons were? There was the money factor since rent and food were becoming an increasing issue... But that's what late nights at Uchiha mansions were for! Food and a couch (or a lavish bed with silk quilts) to crash on.

Digging her chewed nails into her scalp, Sakura cursed and berated herself for her never ending need to be a kiss-ass.

Daring to look up at the clock, Sakura embraced herself for a staggering blow to her sanity.

11:34

56 more minutes of being tortured by convincing shadows, perverted janitors and the rhythmic ticking of the red-rimmed clock to go. Seeing that there was no paperwork to be done (her kiss-ass self did them yesterday and handed them in early) and no medical files to be read (why wait?), Sakura entertained herself with doodling on a piece of daisy-trimmed paper.

With 30 minutes to go and counting, Sakura heard her colleagues downstairs start to scamper about as she was making finishing touches to Sai's delectable abs. Raising a pink, plucked eyebrow to the abrupt chaos, Sakura bravely ventured over to the door. Before she could even lay her hand on the rusting knob, the door flew open so spasmodically that she had to jump back to not get smacked in the face from it.

A pale faced intern met her curious stare with wide blue eyes and a trembling lip. Her medic smock was already dotted with blood.

"G-gomen, Sakura-sama, but there's an emergency in wing four!"

Sakura nodded and followed the young intern down the not-so-scary corridor. Her adrenaline was pumping with a renewed gusto as her mind was racing over the procedure on how to subdue a horrific patient. Her pink hair whipped wildly around her as she made a sharp turn to the right, still following the intern, and flew past the janitor in all his lazy-eye glory.

Kicking into head-medic-mode, Sakura questioned her intern in a monotonous voice, "What is the situation? Are you in need of blood transfusions?"

The young medic in front of her quavered out, "A shinobi returned from an S-class mission. Height - 181 cm; Weight - 67.5 kg. I've been told that there is throat lacerations, a few broken ribs, dislocated shoulder and a shattered collarbone. Blood transfusions are evident, Sakura-sama."

Sakura only nodded and didn't reprimand her on the honorific. Different scenarios played throughout her mind as wing four drew closer. Once she was inside that door, rule twenty-five would reel its ugly head as Sakura would only be focused on the battered body, not the person. She had learned the hard way to not be emotional in surgery. It clouded your mind.

The intern stopped at a corridor and nodded to Sakura, "It's the third door on the left."

Sakura ran to the door and shouted, "Get the IV backups!"

Bursting into the small room, Sakura was met with chaos. Everything seemed to become blurry as her mouth shouted out orders on instinct while her hands magically knew what tools to grab. Never looking at her patient's face, Sakura ribbed open his vest and then his tight-fitted black shirt. Repulsive blue, black and yellow bruises as well as new gashes met her trained medical eye. Gathering chakra into her palms, she focused on mending three broken ribs and not the bedlam around her.

"Condition isn't stable!"

"Blood transfusions pronto! Type O!"

"Heart rate speeding up..."

"Vocal folds lacerated! Someone do something!"

Sakura closed her eyes and refrained from telling her fellow medic-nins to shut the hell up. Grabbing the nearest one, Sakura told her without missing a beat to work on the dislocated shoulder and collarbone as she tried to sew together the man's vocal folds.

From seeing the mangled and shredded tissue near the man's trachea, Sakura forced down the bile that eagerly rose to her throat. It was a wonder this shinobi was still breathing, let alone made it to the hospital doors. Sakura could only partly hear her ragged breaths as her chakra started to steadily deplete from the tedious and strategic work on the shinobi's throat.

"Blood pressure is skyrocketing!"

"Type O transfusions are running low."

"Breathing is erratic.."

"Heart rate plummeting!"

_Dammit..._

Sakura, in a heat a fury, slammed both her chakra manipulated hands down upon the man's chest in a valiant attempt to revive his heart. She wasn't about to lose her first patient of the night. What of her reputation? Sakura resumed her work on the throat until she sewed up the last of the folds and grafted the skin to cover up the handy work. Glancing over to the monitors, she almost moaned when his vitals seemed to still be unstable after transfusions, healing and chest-slamming...

"Get an oxygen mask!"

Snatching the plastic from an unknown medic's hands, Sakura was about to place it on the shinobi's face when she was met with a navy mask instead of a nose and a mouth. She could feel her heart shrivel up into a small raisin as her stomach forced its way to her throat. No, no, no...

The mask, the jounin vest and the familiar height and weight measurements...

_Dammit, it can't be. He'd never get so...mutilated! _

Letting her eyes travel up his masked face, Sakura's breath hitched as she saw a scarred left eye and silver hair plastered against his forehead in a spat of blood. He looked so fragile, so in pain, so weak... This person, this.._thing_ couldn't be her sensei. No, it couldn't be Hatake Kakashi...

"Sakura-sama! Sakura-sama put the oxygen mask on quickly! We don't have much time!"

She could only stare at Kakashi's strained face, his eyes squeezed shut in agony, the quick way his chest moved up and down from his ragged breaths. Sort of like her own right now. She couldn't be responsible for his life. What if..what if she failed? As Sakura gazed in horror at the blood staining Kakashi's skin, she did something that she never did in her whole medic career.

She froze up.

"Sakura-sama! These seconds are precious!"

"We're going to lose him!"

Sakura was only briefly aware at how her hands were shaking uncontrollably, causing the mask to fall upon her sensei's newly mended chest. His eyes shot open at that moment, scaring the living shit out of her and her colleagues. The way they were filled with so much pain, the way he seemed to be gasping like he couldn't get enough air...it scared her. It woke her up.

_Rule number 25, rule number 25... _

Tearing off the blue material from Kakashi's face, Sakura pressed the oxygen mask over the exposed skin. The blurry plastic distorted the lower part of his face from view. Sakura kept the mask steady as she stared at the IV dripping fluids into his system and then to the bag filled with blood oozing its way into his depleted bloodstream. Slowly, ever so agonizingly slowly, the shouts and cries softened to a mutual murmur...

"Vital signs beginning to stabilize..."

"Transfusions effective."

Sakura, breathing heavily, looked upon her sensei's face to see that his mismatched eyes had closed but there was still that worry line in his forehead, the strain in his jaw and the grit of his teeth. Sakura shook her head in apology as she calmly ordered, "Sedate him."

She let herself be whisked away while the called-upon anesthesiologists did their bidding. This would help the pain, she silently explained to her sensei who obediently relaxed his muscles while the anesthetic flowed into him and carried him off to a lullaby. Sakura didn't notice that she had slumped onto the wall across from her patient as she continued to watch the pain be masked by sedatives. Maybe she would take some of those after this.

As the chaotic tilt of the world steadied itself once again, the medic-nins filed out one by one as some wheeled Kakashi away in a gurney to a recuperating room. There he would be monitored all night to see if everyone's efforts did their justice, to see if Sakura passed this unruly test in her young life. _She_ would watch over him tonight. He was _her_ responsibility. After all these years, the roles would be switched tonight. Hopefully _only_ tonight if all bodes well.

"Are you sure, Sakura-sama? You don't look well. Maybe you should go home and rest."

Sakura fluffed Kakashi's pillow and checked his IV, "I can rest here." She turned to her intern and she quickly bowed and left Sakura's presence. Sakura sighed as she flopped into the chair next to Kakashi's bed. She'd be trusted to watch him alone tonight. Sakura rubbed her temples and looked over at the room's black-trimmed clock.

12:55

Suppressing a groan (her shift had officially ended 55 minutes ago. The _one_ time Kakashi wasn't late...), Sakura turned to her accomplice.

The anesthesiologists assured her that his vitals were now perfectly stable, albeit a small concussion, and the sedatives would keep him conked out in "la la land" until tomorrow afternoon most likely. Despite all of this, Sakura couldn't help but furrow her brows in worry and kept glancing over to the heart monitor, making sure no beats were kept out of its repetitive symphony.

Sakura dared herself to peer over at her sensei's face. The oxygen mask was still in place (after her numerous barks to not touch it) and the lower half of his never-been-seen face was still hidden from her view. How her fingers itched to peek at the wonders that continuously lay under that damned fabric... Sakura stopped herself from cackling evilly (and being sent to the psychiatric ward...) and settled for a sigh instead.

What had happened to him? How could the infamous sharingan wielder be so broken and bloody? Sakura reached out to remove his crimson tipped hair out of his eyes and briefly marveled at its softness despite its unruly appearance. Dozens of scratches etched themselves in a zigzagged pattern across the upper part of Kakashi's face and Sakura could not halt the whimper that escaped her throat's chamber. Her eyes trailed down to his blue hands that were limp at his sides. One or two nails had been ripped clean off and Sakura could see the beginnings of puss oozing out of the wounds. Scampering over to a medicine cabinet, the roseate-haired medic pumped disinfectant into her small hands and rubbed Kakashi's sores gently.

Settling back down in her cushioned chair, Sakura wrung her own hands nervously in her lap. Did she miss any steps on the healing process? Was she sure that the blood in the bags above Kakashi's head were Type O? Sakura dug her bloody fingernails in her scalp once more, frustration getting the best of her. Taking five tranquil breaths (like her anger management therapist told her to), Sakura slumped her shoulders and continued to stare at Kakashi. His chest was moving up and down smoothly, so unlike his quavering gasps minutes before.

A few minutes passed (16 to be exact), and Sakura could feel the early phases of boredom (or was it sleep?) enter her senses. Trying to keep herself occupied/awake, the medic-nin started to think about what her friends would say about this predicament. Surely, Naruto would scream and holler at Sakura to tell him more and would proceed to drag her to Kakashi's room, Sasuke's eyes would widen a bit and Sai would probably blink at her. He isn't really one for emotional situations...

Sakura's eyes widened as she realized something of great importance. Snapping her head towards her conked out sensei, Sakura sighed that no one else was in the room to hear her latest philosophical question.

Shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly at her pathetic audience, Sakura faced Kakashi with her hands gripping the bed rails, "Ne, Kaka-sensei... Who do you think would win in a fight? Sai's abs or Sasuke's hair?"

Receiving no answer except silence from her all-nighter buddy, Sakura leaned back into her chair and crossed her arms. Tapping her index finger to her lip in thought, Sakura voiced her opinion, "Well, there would have to be some limits. Like no hair gel and no wife-beaters... Mm, this is a hard one..."

Pouting at her latest predicament, Sakura huffed and stored the question in the back of her mind to pull out again when the four of them were together at Sasuke's...and Kakashi wasn't laying in a hospital (of all places) in an artificial comatose...

Her light humor was short lived as reality came crashing down upon her.

_Maybe I should get him another blanket... Or some painkillers when the sedative wears off. _

Stretching before she got out of her seat, Sakura went into the supply closet and retrieved two blue blankets – one for him and one for her. Dumping one bundle on her chair, Sakura proceeded to splay the other cerulean blanket upon Kakashi's still form. Tucking the fuzzy warmth up to his chin, Sakura giggled before returning to her chair and wrapping her blanket around herself.

"Just like a sleep over, ne Kakashi-sensei?"

Sakura allowed herself a smile and one more look at his monitors. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, his heart rate was mostly back to normal (sedatives could make it slow a fraction) and his blood pressure was at normal levels. It was almost _too_ good to be true. Surely there had to be something else to check...something else to fix, to mend... After that horrific episode, it couldn't be all smooth sailing, right? Sakura pulled the blanket tighter around herself as she tried to will away the suspicion of false positives...

Sakura took five more tranquil breaths. There was nothing else she could do. She followed all the procedures to a T (hell, maybe repeated them a couple of times) and checked all the monitors signals to ensure their accuracy. All she could do was wait and give Kakashi a new bag of IV and re-heal his real worse-for-wear wounds in an hour.

Sakura set her watch to go off at that hour and tried to warm her trembling body. Peering over at her patient once again, she noticed a pale hand hanging out from under the sea of blue. A small smile grazed Sakura's lips as she took Kakashi's limp hand and encased it in her own. His touch was ice while hers was warm and soft. Sakura gently applied pressure to warm up his blood circulation and to reassure her sensei.

Rubbing her thumb back and forth across the back of Kakashi's hand, she whispered softly, "If it makes you feel better, I think your hair is a worthy opponent against Sai and Sasuke."

Sakura imagined the happy eye-crease and hair-ruffle she would receive from that comment any other day. She didn't like how lifeless Kakashi seemed to be and wondered if he could even hear her more than interesting thoughts she'd spoken aloud.

The silence that lulled upon the two occupants was staggering. All that was to be heard was the wind scraping against the walls, still trying to get in, and if she listened very closely, the squeaky wheels of the pervert janitor down the hall. Sakura shivered as she looked around the whitewashed room. Everything was too still. Her sensei was too pale. Her hair was too greasy...

_Calm down, Sakura. It's just the dark that's messing with your mind. Sensei's fine for now and he'll probably stay that way. You know what a stubborn old man he is._

But as she looked around the room once more and then to her sensei's frail hand in hers, she was all but comforted.

With an umpteenth sigh, and with nothing better to do for a half an hour, Sakura took out her daisy-trimmed paper and started on a new doodle.

A scarecrow with gravity-defying hair.

She named it Ukki.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

_A/N:_ Whelp, this is my new story. And yes I said _story_, not oneshot. Ms. Oneshot Queen over here has missed the joys of multi-chapter-ness. Sorry that this first chapter's pretty short (most first chapters are) and if you have any questions about medical terms, just say the word and I'll explain it to you. Although, I don't think there's any in this first chap that's too much of a head-scratcher, but later on there may be.

Now let's watch and see if I can incorporate drama and humor at the same time. shit hits fan


	2. Breach of Light

**A/N:** Thank you all for the encouraging reviews. This story plot is going to be tough to deal with (you'll see why in this and the coming chapters) so I need all the encouragement I can get.

If any of you didn't know, _Ukki_ is the name of Kakashi's potted plant on his window sill in the manga. I think you spot it in the anime..I'm not sure. I just added that in there for fun.

And to let all of you know, no Kakashi is not going to die. I'm not _that_ cruel.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Right now the world seems so silent

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

_Breathe in_.

Breathe out.

A steady pulse beeped throughout his eardrums. The repetitive noise was his only accomplice in the small room, he had decided once he woke up five minutes ago. Despite his closed eyelids, he could feel that a darkness laid beyond them, signaling that day had not yet rose from its slumber. There was a constant dripping beside him that made his broken frame shiver with each plop. The cloud that refused to dissipate from his head made his usually tact mind slow and wither. No matter how much he clawed, the fog would not disperse and let him dwell on the situation at hand. All that he could do was wait and listen to the sound of a liquid dripping and remind himself to take a breath.

Something foreign aroused his clouded senses. Warmth upon his left hand, a murmuring of incoherent words. The cold ice of his hand melted as a smaller one incased it, squeezing with reassurance. He almost forgot to breathe.

He could not ward off the lethargic fog of his mind no longer. His senses dulled until all that was left was the distinctive warmth of his left hand and the consistent beeping. His fight was over and he had lost as the sweeping sense of forced sleep dowsed him.

It never gave him time to squeeze back.

_Breathe in_...

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

A fierce burning sensation on her eyelids jolted her awake. Snapping them open, Sakura twisted and turned, eyes darting about, to find the source of such a painful throb. Clutching a hand to her chest, she released a breath she had been holding as her gaze fell upon the small window. The sun had decided to awake her from her slacking off. As the thought entered her mind, she turned her head quickly over to Kakashi's monitors, earning her a nice stiff neck for the rest of the day.

Murmuring an annoyed "ow", Sakura's eyes traced over the ever-updated graphs and charts of Kakashi's vitals. Sakura knitted her brows together as everything seemed to appear abnormally normal. Her previous fear of last night resumed its choking hold, leaving her gasping for answers as to why? The clenching of her stomach didn't uphold while she tried to reassure herself and scolded as to why she wasn't rejoicing. The feeling of 'too-perfect' never withered, but as Sakura did a once over to Kakashi's monitors (making sure they were plugged in right) and his body (poor thing would probably have to be bedridden with those ribs), all signs pointed to healthy (well for the most part).

Sitting back in her chair, Sakura gazed upon her sensei's closed eyelids.

_Please open_...

She did all she could do. From chakra-healing exercises and regular medicine to holding hands and whispering warm words of comfort, Sakura drained herself useless over the course of the day and a half. The medicine world wasn't as exciting as some of her friends presumed it was. It had to do with a lot of waiting, testing a certain pink-haired kunoichi's patience to the brink (which wasn't much in retrospect). This was proven if one cared to take a look around in the small recuperating room. Numerous doodles sporting Sakura's latent drawing skills littered the room, some actually taped onto Kakashi's bed railings. The drawings ranged from tiny, undecipherable scribbles to elaborate portraits of friends and teammates. And senseis...

Sakura ran her hands down her sleep-deprived face, groaning softly at how her sensei seemed to be late for everything. _Everything_. The anesthesiologist had already come and gone, administering another minimal dose when Kakashi's stress levels had spiked. He had been puzzled as to why the copy-nin had not woken up in the time expected (being over a day late). He had told Sakura not to fret however, once she took on early signs of hyperventilating, and that this situation was perfectly normal.

_Normal my ass_._ It's been "normal" with good ole Kaka-sensei since the first day we met him_...

A sigh racked through her sore frame. Sleeping (even if semi-consciously) in a sitting-up position was never good for the spine. She could imagine a chiropractor slapping her at the positions she dosed in last night. It didn't matter though. Kakashi was the patient here and his spinal cord wasn't twisted and bent as he lay peacefully on soft bed sheets. It made Sakura jealous. Sakura rubbed out the incoherent envies from her sleepy eyes. Glancing once again at the man in the navy blue mask (wouldn't he be proud that she chose to blindly replace his mask over administering oxygen over his naked face), Sakura prayed he'd wake up soon so she wouldn't be so bored. And so she could beat the hell out of him all over again for not being more careful.

It worried her. His aloof personality in everyday life irked her to no end, but underneath the eye-creases and hair-ruffles and dirty little books, Kakashi was a killing machine that would take a three-month solo mission without a second thought. She didn't like that. One day, his loyalty will get him killed and Sakura couldn't help but to dwell that he was reckless (like overusing his Sharingan and draining his chakra from chidori) on purpose. The thought was utterly ridiculous, but she couldn't get the notion out of her head. Were these S-ranked missions not enough for him? So, to keep the adrenaline rush of clashing kunais, the man literally put his ass on a plate for the enemy to see if he could get out of the pickle he set up for himself?

No. Kakashi was clueless, but the elite jounin wasn't stupid. Why would he ever take such a huge risk? This wasn't a game to him. Well...it shouldn't be.

Shaking her head and blaming her inquiries on her half-hour-sleep, Sakura cracked her stiff knuckles and prepped for his awakening.

"SAKURA-CHAN!"

An annoyed shout from a nurse and a slight crash was Sakura's only warning before a streak of orange and black clambered into the small room, promptly slamming the door behind it. Sakura paused in her preparations, almost dropping her tray of gauze and iodine, and turned to glare at her intruder.

"Naruto! I thought I had set a strict rule with you about not barging into the recuperating room, BAKA!"

Naruto no baka only grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his blonde head.

Sakura wasn't finished with her lecture, stomping closer to Naruto with every hissed-out word, "_No one_ is allowed to come in at such a precious time. It could be a life and death situation!"

Naruto laughed nervously, "Ah, Sakura-chan, I only wanted to see if Kaka-sensei was okay..."

Taking the time to look around the room for the first time, Naruto's brow creased in worry as he laid his cerulean orbs upon his former sensei's fragile body. Tilting his head to one side, Naruto stepped closer to the hospital bed and turned to stare at Kakashi's heart monitors.

His voice was suddenly - eerily - serious, "Why isn't he up yet?"

Sakura tucked a pink lock behind her ear as she bit her lip in indecision. To tell the truth? Or a sugar-coated lie?

Sakura thought Naruto was old enough to hear her diagnosis, "I don't really know. He's been like that for a day and a half. The person who sedated him doesn't know why he hasn't waken yet. I can only assume that his injuries may be more than skin deep."

Naruto's brow furrowed even further as he quietly added, "It takes a lot to underhand Kaka-sensei."

Sakura nodded, "Aa. According to my estimations, he should be waking in a few hours perhaps. I can't be sure though," Sakura snuck in a quick smile, "Sensei _was_ always late."

Naruto's face beamed with humor as a wide grin plastered itself across his face, "Haha! Of course! It's baka-sensei. He always likes to have a suspenseful entrance, ne? You hear me Kaka-sensei?!"

Naruto leaned into Kakashi's exposed ear and bellowed, "If you don't wake up in time I'll burn all your books and tell ero-sennin not to give you anymore 'personal copies'!"

The stress level graph minimally spiked.

Sakura grinded her teeth and stomped her way to Naruto and smacked him upside the head and proceeded to drag him away from Kakashi by his ear. Sakura huffed and ignored Naruto's numerous pleas to be good and to not make any more threats and to try harder to not involuntarily kill their dear old sensei before being booted out of the room into the annoyed nurse's clutches. Sakura glared at the closed door before turning on her heel to fluff Kakashi's pillow.

Checking his stress levels, Sakura breathed a sigh of relief when they were at normal heights once she threw Naruto out of the small space. She made a mental note to get Tsunade's henchmen to guard the doors. She had been around Naruto for too long to know that he was not only a baka, but a stubborn one at that.

Sakura didn't trust herself to be alone with her thoughts, though. She rather not dwell on the option of Kakashi not waking up or that he was purposely reckless this time. The latter was a no-brainer of course (right?). Why would the copy-nin want to get stuck in a hospital? His top loathe? It was beyond Sakura but then again, most things about her loveable (and slightly hentai) sensei were just too far for her to reach.

Sakura pouted at the sudden memory of asking her sensei why he wore a mask in the first place. She was positively sure that there were no double-meanings in her query to actually take it off. She had constructed this question with much care and honestly wanted to know. Was it because of allergies? Too hot for Konoha? Just to mess with everybody's mind?

_Sakura slurped up another ramen noodle and ever-so-innocently scooted closer to the sharingan user beside her. They were alone at the ramen hut, a perfect opportunity to ask him about that damn mask with no Naruto around to make it look suspicious. She watched with fascination as her sensei's ramen bowl became less and less filled before her very own jade eyes. No matter how long she stared at his hands and mask, they never seemed to move. His lightening quick skills her just too fast for her to follow. Inwardly sighing, Sakura propped up her arm on the counter and nonchalantly mixed her noodles and pork around while asking, "Kakashi-sensei?" _

Kakashi only supplied her with a "Mm?" to indicate that he was listening. He idly lifted a chopstick wrapped with ramen to his face before it disappeared from view. When Sakura took longer than expected to answer, Kakashi raised his eyebrow as he turned his head slightly towards her. Sakura's sudden closeness did not go unseen by his keen eye.

Sakura fiddled with her own pair of chopsticks before blatantly asking, "Why do you wear that mask all the time?"

Kakashi tapped his chin with an index finger, seeming to think long and hard as to why indeed. Sakura silently fumed at him for not taking her question seriously. Her grip tightened around the wooden utensils and that too did not go unnoticed by the copy-nin beside her.

Sending a friendly eye-crease her way while pointing at the navy blue material in question, Kakashi denied every last ounce of false hope left in Sakura's being, "I like to think it raises my cool factor."

Sakura refused to pay that night.

Growling slightly, Sakura remembered that irking eye-creasehe had given her. Honesty wasn't the jounin's policy when it came to that damn piece of fabric. Looking at the mask upon her sensei's sleeping face, Sakura recalled the forlorn look his eye had held for a brief second once returning to his noodles that night. She knew that there was a deeper meaning to the seemingly innocent face mask. There always was with Kakashi. Everything the man did seemed to have a greater meaning that he didn't care to share with the world. So, it left it up to Sakura to figure out his hidden secrets.

For knowing the man six years, Sakura didn't really know him at all. Sure, he had opened up his protective, highly-guarded shell a sliver for her after the whole Sasuke fiasco, but he tended to stray away from his past and slightly personal information. Now that Sakura thought about it, where did the man even _live?_ She had to send the hospital bill somewhere...

Perhaps to the memorial since Kakashi always seemed to practically live at the black marble stone. So many names etched upon it, names that Kakashi felt he had a duty to pay a visit to day after day. Sakura frowned. Just who did the mysterious jounin have a past connection to? She waved off her question. He'd never answer her anyway.

Sakura finished up her prep-routine and briefly wondered whether Kakashi would be hungry when (_if,_ her mind whispered) he would wake up and if he liked orange or raspberry jell-o. It was the only safe thing the hospital had for patients these days. Ever since the expired-milk-incident with Naruto, the staff and Tsunade decided to limit the choices of food patients had. Anything that would expire must go. And that was pretty much everything.

Pulling up her trusty chair to Kakashi's bedside, Sakura laced her fingers together and propped her elbows upon the bed's railing.

"Wake up, baka-sensei. I need to take a shower."

Sakura sighed when she realized that she would be forced to talk to an unconscious person for the rest of the day since her doodle paper was no longer in supply and she didn't care to bring a good read with her. The roseate-haired medic didn't feel like writing her thesis on gastrula complications for her mentor and she would only end up like her KO-ed sensei if she even attempted to read through her Medic Terms textbook. A person can only read about liver cancer and aortic dissections for so long before they thrust the hefty book out the window onto the innocent passerby below.

The room fell silent suddenly, only the beeping assurance that Kakashi's heart was still beating uttering any noise. It unnerved her. Something was...off.

_Shut up, shut up, shut up! You need sleep, Sakura. Stop thinking such stupid things. If Kakashi was in danger, the monitors and graphs would be off the charts. The emergency IVs would kick in and then you would have a **real** problem on your hands. Be grateful, dammit! _

Running a hand down her bagged eyes and pale face for the umpteenth time, Sakura groaned.

"Dammit Kakashi, when you wake up I'm going to give you a _painful_ lesson on being punctual..."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

_Breathe in_...

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sakura's trained eyes widened as she saw a flicker of movement upon Kakashi's eyelids. She held her breath.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

_Breathe out_...

Something lay beyond this darkness that had shrouded his mind. He pushed against it with all his depleted strength. He needed to see what was ahead of this desolated black space. Any longer in this hell hole, he would surely go crazy. More so than he was already.

_Breathe in_...

_Open, dammit_...

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sakura refrained from chewing her fingernails in anticipation as she saw Kakashi's eyelids dance before her jade orbs. She knew he was trying to fight off the sedative and knew from experience that it was an uphill battle through and through. But Kakashi, which she also learned from beforehand experience, was a stubborn elite ninja who wouldn't give up until his lungs gave out.

She prayed that this situation wouldn't lead to that. She hadn't learnt how to cure burst lungs yet.

Sakura leaned slightly back in her chair just incase if Kakashi would decide to open his eyes. It would be confusing at first with his new surroundings and not to mention all the equipment strung to his body (and the slight pain). She didn't need to add anymore to that first-bewilderment with her striking locks a hairbreadth away from Kakashi's fidgeting lids.

Sakura bit her lip and whispered fervently, "Come on, Kaka-sensei. Just open your eyes..."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

_Breathe out_...

_Just a little more_.

There. The fog that doused his mind, refusing to uphold, finally gave in to his persistent pushing and clawing. The light was getting more pronounced and he could smell something distinctly of ink and metal. The faint, lingering fragrance of strawberries wafted in after and calmed him, the previous odors making him tense – leading him to think he had been captured in the enemies' stronghold.

He tried to move his left hand, absentmindedly missing the warmth that had encased it only hours before. There was something that was clamped onto his middle finger, but he was too fatigued to wiggle it experimentally.

_One thing at a time, Kakashi_.

It was so close. Sounds that were clouded before made their presences known. The clinking of thin metallic objects, the low hum of numerous machines surrounding him, slight chirping in the distance (a window was probably near), the soft, anxious breaths to the left beside him...

It was tantalizing him. Right when he thought that the haze would clear, give mercy to him, the precious light ahead would be pulled back slightly. He had always been a patient man, hell the jounin could sit in a ditch for twenty-two hours with nothing but his mind waiting for his target to show up, but this was sending him across the brink. It was a test of wits, of sanity, and he could feel his concrete self-control losing its foundation.

There, again. The light was breaching his senses once more. He wasted no time, jumping, mentally grabbing onto the illuminated world on the other side. It strained, it hurt as he was slowly being reintroduced into the reality he had come to know. Slowly, he could feel his body slightly propped up in a soft (yet itchy) bedding and mentally cringed at the dull ache that throbbed throughout his insides.

Shaking off the thrust of pain that had been happily thrown at his groggy being, he listened to the breathing next to him. Still worried, still anxious, still hoping. After years of conditioning, the supposed bedridden jounin had learned how to interpret breathing patterns exactly down to the last essence of a sigh (and not to mention body language overall). This pattern he closely regarded seemed familiar, but his still fuzzy mind couldn't comprehend who exactly owned it. It didn't matter right now. Time was of the essence. If he let this god given opportunity go to waste, he may become stuck between black and ebony once again.

Kakashi opened his eyes.

His vision was blurry and distorted, the only thing he could see being white walls and bleared furniture and machines. The sharingan user blinked twice, each time a new object making itself more presentable.

Kakashi would've groaned if there wasn't a sharp pain throbbing across the bones of his ribs. It was a small room filled with heart monitors, IVs and blood transfusion bags. A hospital. There was nothing like waking up to the sharp tinge of needles and the stifling smell of sterility. From what he could gather with his still slow-paced mind, bandages were wrapped around his middle, a sling cradled his right arm, a patch covered his sharingan and other numerous patches of gauze were scattered across his fragile body.

"Kaka-sensei?'

The copy-nin in question slowly swivelled his eye, trying to avoided disorientation, towards his left where he had heard the soft breathing moments before. A shock of vibrant pink overtook his senses and made him have to close his eye from its complete contrast to the dull, white and grey room. Reopening his good eye, Kakashi gazed upon the form of his former student. Her eyes were wide with wonder and skepticism, forcing herself not to give into false hope. His gaze softened. She learned well in the medic-world.

Kakashi's head was pounding, but he never let his eye stray from her own. He needed something to focus on. If his mind had nothing to occupy itself with, he'd be dragged back to that dark world where light was swallowed up. He could feel his eyelids fluttering despite his valiant attempts. His hands gripped the bed rails beside him, trying to hold onto this world of the living.

The copy-nin's breathing was deep and careful as he willed away the tempting lethargy. How he would love to go back to sleep, but a ninja was taught not to be selfish.

Sakura leaned in closer to his trembling form, "Kakashi-sensei? Are you okay? Are you with me?"

Kakashi regained his footing and returned his gaze upon Sakura, taking in the dark bags that dragged down her emerald orbs and the greasy appearance of her usually spick and span locks. She was tired. She must've been up all night watching over him.

Kakashi opened his concealed mouth to say he was okay, to say he could hear, to say thank you for all she had done and to ask when he would be leaving (and if it'd be soon, he silently hoped).

He opened his mouth to say all those things.

But what came out was silence.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

A/N: A little cliff-hanger for all of you. Yes, I am evil, but it seemed like a good (well...not _good_) note to end on.

A little cliff-hanger for all of you. Yes, I am evil, but it seemed like a good (well...not ) note to end on. 

I've decided to start a list of what song lyrics I use in the beginning of each chapter. I remember reading a story (I think it was actually Duty Before Honor – great story/plot/and KakaSaku. Read it) and I always wondered what songs the author used in the beginning. So I give you:

Oxygen Soundtrack

Chap 1: Pieces - Sum 41  
Chap 2: Wind in My Sails - Spoken

Ooh, what is happening to dear Kakashi? Tune in for the next chap coming out soon. Reviews are greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

- - H. 92


End file.
